A Freelancer Love Life
by BIG Z1776
Summary: York and Carolina are known as the pair that could have been. You know it, I know it, heck even they knew it. So it's only fair they should get their chance right? Well in this story they do, watch this love at first sight pairing go from a chance meeting at a night club to forbidden love aboard the Mother of Invention. Be warned I will be ignoring the established plot line mostly.
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, this is new for me. Normally, I never write Freelancer stuff without the Reds and Blues being a pivotal part of the story, but reading a few of them I didn't want to be left out. **

**So background information: This will be an AU, with little to do with the actual show's plot line. I'll be sort of making things up as I go along so I when I her things like "That never happened" I will laugh and point to the AN. Now, how about that first chapter?**

Chapter 1

_Flick it on, flick it off. Flick it on, flick it off. The tiny dancing flame of that little lighter was the only real interesting object of interest to York's semi-drunk mind. He'd stumbled around the club trying to find his lousy excuses for friends. But after about fifteen minutes he realized they'd taken off. It had happened before, sometimes he and his friends drank a little too much and forgot someone in their group, but he hadn't ever been on the receiving end. _

_But it couldn't have happened in a nicer place. Club Errera, one of the high rise class dance clubs/bars in New Alexandria, the crown jewel of Reach itself. The pulsing neon lights of the dance floor and the walls and the tables had given him a headache quite early on and he had decided to retreat to the less well lit bar area. He'd quickly sensed the very depressing feeling of being alone after he'd called his friends up on his cell phone and had reminded them they'd left him. They said they'd be there in about half an hour, so he'd tried his luck with some of the ladies, and had struck out. The bar tender was an alright guy to talk to, but he was a bit too busy and distracted for any meaningful conversation. _

_So he was left to this little lighter he'd had in his pocket. It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing. He knew he looked fairly dejected, maybe that was why he heard the unmistakable clicking of high heels coming up behind him. He grinned to himself, and began to turn around to try and lay some moves on whatever fine lady had decided to join him up at the bar. But when he turned he was absolute dumbstruck at what happened next._

"_Hey!" he yelped, seeing a redheaded woman with piercing green eyes looking right back at him. In her hands she holds the lighter, and her pink lips form an entertained smirk as she watches him look at her._

"_You seem a little lonely," she says looking at the lighter in her hands, "What's the matter?"_

"_Oh not much, just hanging out," York grinned._

"_By yourself? Sounds like a good time," she replied sarcastically, not to impressed._

"_Well when your buddies have a bit too much to drink and move on without you the good times don't tend to last," York said._

"_Well then, I suppose you don't have to worry about them for now. Which means you can buy me a drink," the redhead replied gracefully sliding into a bar stool next to him._

_York couldn't help but grin to himself at how easy he thought this potential hookup might be. He let his eyes take in the white spaghetti strap top she had on all the way down past the blue miniskirt to the brown high heeled boots that reached nearly to her knees. Her body was lean and toned, with curves in all the right places. She had on a little bit of eyeliner, as well as a tiny amount of blush applied to her cheeks. _

"_Well, since I'm buying you a drink perhaps I could know your name?" York said, tapping the bar as he called for a round. _

"_Carolina," she said, taking the tequila in her hand as she looked back at York._

"_Carolina huh? Seems like a…unique name. You can call me…"_

"_Agent New York," she said, cutting him off abruptly._

"_E-excuse me?"_

"_Your new codename. Apparently you've caught the interest of some people in high places, and you've been offered the spot."_

"_A spot? A spot where?" York asked, "What is this?"_

"_Project Freelancer, a subdivision of ONI Sector Three. You've been selected for a very exclusive club. Question I have, are you in?"_

Several Years Later, Present Day

Oh he got in alright, after a few more drinks and a visit to the ONI building where the Project was just getting its feet under it he'd joined Project Freelancer as Agent New York. After a hard and drawn out series of specialty training schools and combat courses he'd been sent off to his current posting, the UNSC Mother of Invention. The perks of the job were pretty damned cool, he got a bigger paycheck than most military personnel, and he had been outfitted with a state of the art suit of armor which he had colored to his choice of course.

But on a more personal note, he now had daily contact with the lovely and fiery redhead known as Agent Carolina. She'd been there every step of the way, from training to his current posting. There were other lovely ladies of course, but York had begun to feel something quite special between him and Carolina, although whether or not this feeling was mutual was yet to be determined. But there was only one way to find out now wasn't there? He was currently sitting in the mess hall eating a late dinner after some training with a few of the higher ranked Agents; Maine, North Dakota, South Dakota, Washington, and of course Carolina.

"Well I'd say that went as well as could be expected," North said as he sat down across from York.

"If by expected you mean Carolina beating the hell out of us, then yeah, it went pretty well," Washington said as he sat next to South.

"I still say she cheated with using that chameleon thing of hers," South growled as she stabbed her fork into her baked potato with enough force to make an audible noise of metal hitting porcelain echo in the nearly empty mess hall.

"In combat there aren't any rules South," Carolina suddenly spoke up from behind South, "The enemy won't play fair and neither should we. That's something we should all remember."

She circled around and sat next to York as Maine came around with three plates stacked with every food item that was available at the line and sat next to her.

"Hey I'm not complaining, I was on your side that last round," York grinned, flashing a smile to Carolina who just smirked.

"I am," Maine said, "Every time I made a move a blotch of that damned paint was stuck to me."

"You just need to watch your corners Maine," Wash said trying to offer some advice but got an evil eye from Maine as he shoveled half a burger into his mouth.

"You didn't do much better either Wash," York chuckled, "I'm fairly sure you didn't beat me once that entire session."

"Yeah I did," Wash snapped defensively, "Remember when you tried to jump over that block in the first round? That was me who shot you right in the face."

"Oh whoopdee doo, one point to Wash," South groaned.

York smirked and stole a glance over at Carolina who was listening detached from the arguing and banter going on between what was effectively her team as she ate. All she had grabbed was a pair of sandwiches and a bag of baked wheat chips and a glass of water. She'd never been a big eater, that much was for certain, but she was always in the zone of train, combat, class, repeat. She never seemed to loosen up, not even amongst her closest friends.

"Hey Carolina something on your mind?" York asked, steering conversation away from how Maine hated being teamed up on by the Dakotas.

"A new batch of Agents is arriving tomorrow. Some of them are apparently from the ODST's, so the Director is wanting to put them through some tests so we'll be off duty. But I want you all to be there. See who our new team mates will be."

"Why is it always business with you Carolina, loosen up. We're off the clock."

"Soldiers are never off the clock," Carolina responded.

"But we are off duty. Come on, let's just chill out in the rec room and have some fun," York chided, trying to get her to loosen up.

"There's a few new movies that just came out that Wash got last time we were at space dock," North offered.

"You get movies?" South scoffed.

"Of course, the selection here sucks."

"I'll get the popcorn," Maine said, "Just no chick flicks."

"No problem," Wash chuckled.

"Where'll you get popcorn?" South asked.

"I have my ways of…convincing the mess hall staff."

"So that's why you get three plates," North chuckled, knowing the implied meaning to Maine's answer.

"Come on Carolina, who knows when we might get another off day," York pleaded.

He could see her scowl at first, then her expression started to soften as the idea stewed in her mind. She was clearly considering it, this might be York's time to try and take their friendship to the next level. He'd wanted more than friendship with her, he'd tried all manner of things to try and spend time with her, but being aboard a ship on deep space patrols with the occasional stop at a supply station with leave coming around maybe once every few months there wasn't ample opportunity to try for that one moment that could take a relationship to the next level. And this was it.

"Alright, but I do want to meet the new Agents before I take the day off."

"Sweet, you see? It's not that hard to take a breather and let yourself relax."

York, in his exhilaration, tried to wrap and arm around Carolina's waist. She hadn't seen it coming at all, and she was able to predict many things. But when she felt York's arm around her waist, she felt her chest tighten up, and her eyes momentarily widened in surprise. Then she realized what it was York was doing. She fought viciously to keep a slight blush from creeping into her cheeks as she contemplated what to do. The gentle warmth around her side wasn't unwelcome, but it wasn't asked for. She wanted to pull away, but she didn't want to at the same time. It was a conundrum that seemed to loop over and over through her head as the conversation moved on to what movies Washington had.

"Hey Carolina you ever seen The Drop? That movie about ODST's fighting the Covenant on Earth?" South asked.

"Huh? What?" Carolina stuttered, her attention still primarily on what to do about York's arm that was wrapped around her waist.

South eyed her and then caught a glimpse of tan on the opposite side of York and the two women subtly came to understand what exactly was going on.

"You okay Carolina?" York asked, mercifully removing his hand.

"I'm fine, just zoning out is all," Carolina said, finishing her glass of water, "It's late, I'm uh-gonna shower and grab some shut eye. I'll catch up with you at the rec center tomorrow."

"Alright, see ya," Wash replied.

"Damn, so close," York grumbled to himself, but then realized he'd said that out loud.

"York? What was so close?" North inquired.

"Oh-umm…nothing."

"Oh bullshit, I saw where you so conveniently placed your arm. You've got the hots for Carolina," South snapped, grinning maliciously.

"Hmph," Maine chuckled to himself as he continued to shovel in food, "You trying to hook up with Carolina. You'd have better luck convincing the sun not to rise."

"Oh I don't know about that. I'd say tomorrow will tell."

**Well, first one done. I'll try to have another one up when I can. But my main goal is to have two chapters always not present. One done, another in the making. That way, when one chapter takes a long time I can upload the buffer to hopefully buy time to keep your interest. **

**Next Chapter Preview: Movie Night! A good day to try and get to first base.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Carolina woke up the next morning to the shrill beeping of her alarm clock mounted on her night stand. She grumbled slightly under her breath for a moment before reaching over and hitting the clock and getting out of bed. She swung her legs out of bed, feeling the chill of the deck on her feet as she rubbed some sleep out of her eye. Then she remembered the plan she'd decided on for this day, which she technically had off.

First she remembered the new batch of Agents that was coming aboard to join the program. She noted that she wanted to meet them or at least see a roster. But then she remembered the events of last night, and her promise to her team to meet them at the rec room for a bit of a movie night. So she skipped putting on her armor's undersuit and settled for some sweatpants and a T-shirt with the Mother of Invention written on the back with the seal of the ship on the front. After tying some tennis shoes she walked out the door and was surprised to see York standing there, about to knock.

He grinned awkwardly and brought his hand down from where he was about to actually knock, "Well, you're finally up."

"Yes, it's seven o'clock isn't it?" Carolina replied, walking out and shutting her door.

"Well…not exactly," York said slyly.

"York…" Carolina stopped in the hall, crossing her arms over her chest, her eyes demanding an explanation, "But saw his watch with the time 11:39 on its digital face, "Why is it my alarm clock said seven, but yours says eleven thirty?"

"Well I can tell you what it isn't like that."

"Dammit York, I wanted to see those new recruits! As team leader…"

"As team leader you need your sleep as much as we do, especially on your day off. Besides, the new guys already got here, you can grab a roster and their stats later. Right now, Maine's grabbing the popcorn, Wash's got the movies, and North and South have already gotten some drinks."

Carolina growled under her breath, absolutely infuriated that York had somehow tampered with her alarm clock and had made her sleep in until eleven. However she did feel the benefits of the extra four hours even as she stood there about ready to rant and possibly kill York. He seemed to be rocking back on his heels, ready to bolt at the first sign of aggression from Carolina, but he remained standing there with a smug smile on his lips. She couldn't stay mad at him forever, and it didn't do any real harm, she could let it pass.

"Fine, are we supposed to grab anything?" Carolina growled, "Or was I your responsibility?"

"Self-declared responsibility yeah, but if you want we can relieve the store room of some fresh new candied treats that yours truly pinpointed," York grinned, now realizing he had her, or at least he had her in a mood that didn't evolve into hitting and kicking.

"Agent York, you know that's against regulations," Carolina said to him almost seductively.

York barely managed to choke out a response, "Well-uh…I've already tampered with your alarm clock, I can't get into much more trouble can I?"

"How did you do that by the way?"

"I picked the lock into your room and replaced the clock with a carbon copy. Those things run on their own power you know. Really makes them easy to tamper with and replace."

"How come I didn't hear you get into my room then?" Carolina responded.

"You didn't, you were in the shower when I replaced your clock," York said, causing Carolina to flush bright red and stop in the hallway.

"You what?!"

"Did I say that out loud?" York cringed, just realizing he tooted his horn one too many times.

"How dare you!" Carolina yelled, her fists beginning to clench up, ready to deliver a world of hurt to this peeping tom.

"I just replaced the alarm clock, I swear," York pleaded, backing up as Carolina advanced on him.

"You broke into my room when I saw showering! How else am I supposed to react?!" Carolina hissed.

"Uh…by not beating the living shit out of me?"

"We're already past that," Carolina said, her fists clenched at her sides.

"Easy Carolina, I just swapped the alarm clock and left. I didn't want to be caught in there because I thought you'd kill me," York pleaded, backing away, seeing an elevator to his right a few yards behind him.

"Well, you were right. Because when I'm through with you you're going to wish that-" Carolina growled until she saw the elevator open up behind them and saw a pair of Freelancers in civilian clothing. It was North and South, who each had a pair of two liter bottles in hand.

"Hey there you two are. Come on, Wash got the TV going and Maine's already got the popcorn going," North said with a smile on his face.

"Be there in a minute," Carolina called out calmly, "I just need to teach Agent York a lesson."

"I told you replacing her alarm clock was a bad idea York," North chuckled as York tried to back away.

"It's not my fault."

"How isn't it?" South grinned, waiting for York's inevitable beat down.

"Carolina you think you can teach him a lesson after movie night? We may not get another chance at this kind of down time," North pleaded evenly.

Carolina just stared at York angrily and then brushed past him, "Fine."

York managed to breathe a sigh of relief as Carolina went past him. He'd avoided being turned into a smear on the wall, for now. So he followed behind them all the way to the rec room where he knew that his chances of getting to the next step of his relationship with Carolina were getting slimmer and slimmer. But he felt that he was up to it, the greater the challenge the greater the triumph. So with a confident grin he sauntered into the rec room where Wash was currently slapping the remote against his palm, screaming at it trying to make it work while Maine sat tapping his foot impatiently while three microwaves sat heating up bags of popcorn. The aroma had already wafted out almost to the hallway and York couldn't help but drool slightly at the thought of all that popcorn soon to be in front of him, unless Maine ate it all first.

"There you are!" Wash called out, "About time you woke up Carolina, we thought that you'd gone into a coma from exhaustion."

"A coma?" Carolina asked, not buying what Wash was saying at all.

"That was my guess anyway," Wash shrugged his shoulders, and finally made the DVD player whir to life after replacing the batteries in the remote, "Aha! There we go."

Wash clicked the remote, popping open the DVD player and placed the black and blue colored disk in place. Soon Wash had gotten the disc to the main menu, with the picture of some faces, four male, one female, and the unmistakable view of an ODST helmet all pointed out in dramatic poses. The other Freelancers all nodded at Wash who stood in triumph over the entertainment center as he poured himself a cup of pepsi.

"So what were you doing Carolina? It's not like you to sleep until noon," Maine asked as he poured some kettle corn popcorn salt over several bowls filled with piping hot popcorn.

"It seems that Agent York," she said, growling his name and glaring at him from her new seat on the sofa, "decided it was a good idea to sneak into my room, as I was showering mind you, and replace my alarm clock."

"York, run away while you can," Wash chuckled.

"How was I supposed to know? I didn't have any ulterior motives other than replacing a simple alarm clock. And what harm did it do? Come on Carolina, you have to admit sleeping a few extra hours does have its perks," York said, sliding down the couch confidently over to Carolina, but not too close.

"It wasn't the replacing the alarm clock that has me ticked York," Carolina replied.

"It was sneaking in while she was in the shower you dipshit," South finished for her, getting a jab in the arm from North.

"I apologize," York said, turning on the smolder look trying to get Carolina to lighten up enough to not utterly pulverize him, "Could you forgive me?"

Carolina held her arms over her chest, looking at York, seeing him doing his very best at trying to show his apology was serious. She groaned after looking at him for a few minutes, "Fine, you're forgiven, but this isn't forgotten."

"See? No harm done," York whooped triumphantly wrapping an arm around Carolina's shoulder.

Carolina rolled her eyes, gently grabbing his arm and lifting it off of her shoulder and placed it right back in York's lap. York looked to her with an eye that said "what was that for" and got a look back that said "you know why" and the two of them just settled in next to one another as Maine walked over with four bowls of popcorn. Wash sat down at an arm chair and clicked the play button, starting the movie and then North shut off the lights and the Freelancers all settled in to enjoy themselves.

The movie started out with a bang, that was for sure. It began with a scene of several dozen HEV drop pods falling from space towards Earth during the latter stages of the Covenant War. Fire coated the falling metal boxes as they and their single passengers fell to Earth. Soon they fell through the cloud cover and revealed a massive Covenant ship right there below them. Plasma soon filled the air as point defense lasers targeted the falling pods and the camera saw several take hits and explode into molten balls of wreckage. Then, the unpredictable happened. The ship shuddered and seemed to sparkle and then a sudden wormhole opened up right in front of the ship and the giant leapt forward into it, taking pieces of the massive skyscrapers with it.

The Freelancers had heard about this, the Battle of New Mombassa. The largest and most decisive battle fought on Earth against the Covenant. They had all heard of the absolutely insane idea that the military had come up with to send a full Battalion of ODST's down to hit and land inside the carrier and rip it apart from the inside out. It was daring, and risky, and didn't work. The carrier jumped away, scattering hundreds of ODST's across that region and laid the groundwork for the most chaotic urban warfare yet seen.

"Man, can you imagine being one of those guys?" Wash asked as the screen followed one pod in particular that careened away after being struck by one of its own pods and smashed into a building.

"Shut up and watch the movie Wash," Maine growled.

"Just saying, it must be hell dropping from space," Wash said back as the screen faded to a flashback.

"It's not that bad, we're supposed to be able to train on it ourselves," South replied as she grabbed a few kernels of popcorn from the bowl on her brother's lap.

"We are?" Wash gulped nervously.

"Oh calm down Washington, just enjoy the movie," Carolina grinned at seeing Wash this nervous.

"I'd say for you to do the same Carolina," York quietly whispered, offering her some popcorn which she took gingerly, smiling knowingly at him.

The movie went on, it was sure was an action packed thriller. It seemed to focus primarily on the exploits of a lone squad of the vaunted ODST's and a lone ONI agent and their path to reuniting with one another in war torn New Mombassa. Carolina sure seemed to appreciate it, and as did the rest of the Freelancers. Maine seemed to revel in the part where the ODST's managed to take down a Brute Chieftain with nothing but a knife and their bare hands. York liked the parts with the Rookie himself, it seemed to be the classic lone wolf style of fighting, nothing to rely on but your own wits and skills. Carolina didn't seem to really have a favorite herself, but it looked, to York, that she liked the guy playing the squad's leader, Buck.

During the movie York unconsciously began sneaking his hand over to and around Carolina's shoulders. She was a bit engrossed by the movie itself and didn't really notice the subtle move to bring his arm around to wrap around her shoulders. When she realized it, she was already well within his grasp. She looked down at the arm around her shoulder to the hand resting against the couch cushion. She looked over at York with a curious expression that York saw out of the corner of his eye. He just grinned at her calmly and Carolina just quietly chuckled to herself and this time let the hand stay where it was.

The two Freelancers sat there the same way the whole time, with the occasional interested glance from their compatriots. But something that neither of them noticed was that they were gradually scooting closer and closer to each other. The two of them realized this when they reached the part where the ODST's managed to hijack a Covenant landing craft, a Phantom. South too managed to notice this and held in an entertained grin and gently pointed this out to North who just smiled at the sight of York and Carolina practically up against one another and returned to watching the movie. Maine was simply too enamored with the movie to even notice or even care. He could've cared less to be honest.

Carolina felt herself unconsciously leaning into York as the movie progressed further with the Rookie continuing to make his way through the ruined city streets and fighting little bands of Covenant as he went. The guy didn't seem to say a word, he just went about his business of finding his squad through the never ending streets and rain. Finally, it seemed that the Rookie found something, and ended up going down a hidden elevator to an underground complex of tunnels and chambers where he found a cop that ended up being one of the crooked cops that had been seen earlier in the movie as the Rookie located audio recordings that took them through the early phases of the battle as a civilian and a cop tied desperately to get through to find her father who was killed by halon fire suppressants flooding his office. This cop and the Rookie ended up getting into a fight, leading to a very well done hand to hand combat scene with the Rookie nearly being strangled but then ended up regaining the upper hand and bringing a knife into the cop's heart. Maine really liked that part.

"That's not all that realistic, an ODST against a traffic cop? Please," South groaned as the Rookie controlled his breathing and regained his composure and moved on towards the source of the ONI agent, Veronica Dare's radio signal. He successfully killed every Covenant that was trying to gain access to the door with several well placed grenades and made his entrance to the now helmetless Dare.

"Oh they just did that to make him look better," Wash responded.

"Wash…" Maine growled, warning him to shutup.

The movie began to climax as the ODST's regrouped and charged down a highway protecting an alien, an Engineer that had absorbed the data from a City A.I. that had been leading the Rookie through the city the entire film. Then in a stunning and epic battle, the three of them all fought off hordes of Covenant with machine guns, rocket launchers, and other weapons they recovered from a destroyed Marine strongpoint. The Freelancers all felt themselves totally absorbed with this extraordinarily well done action scene that led to the ODST's just barely escaping on their stolen Phantom and then to a part that York hadn't seen coming. It was an emotional reunion of Dare and Buck, who let the burden of the past battle evaporate as they had one final makeout session. York felt himself draw his grip on Carolina bit closer and she seemed to even lean into it.

He looked at Carolina, who felt the movement of York and looked back, and as the movie's credits started to roll the two of them began to draw closer to each other. Their foreheads gently brushed against each other. Their noses felt the proximity and their lips felt the genuine energy course between themselves as they gently touched. The kiss was as gentle as a summer breeze, and neither of them really dared move, in fear of spoiling the moment. But they didn't need each other to do that, not when their friends were sitting right there.

The lights flicked on, and Wash's voice called out, "What movie's next-well, I think I know what brand you two want," he said chuckling as the entire room stared at the two Freelancers who had been locked together at the lips.

"Wash, mind your own business," York growled, blushing crazily and felt an uncomfortable heat rise up in his chest and up to his head.

"Just choose one that none of us have seen," North said, looking over at York and nodded politely, a big smile plastered on his face as South held her hand over her mouth trying to stifle outright laughter.

"Well how about Colony, that comedy that came out a few weeks ago, anyone seen that one?" Wash asked, stifling his own smile at how red handed Carolina and York had been caught.

"Is that the one with the commercials showing them crashing a ship into the planet they wanted to colonize?" Maine asked.

"Yeah that's the one," Wash responded, "I haven't even opened it, so you don't worry about me spoiling anything."

"Alright pop it in Wash," North responded.

Maine got up, and went to start some fresh bags of popcorn for the next movie as the rest of the Freelancers began to stretch and get some bloodflow into their legs. Carolina remained completely quiet, not really wanting to speak to anybody as she went to fill up her cup with some more Mountain Dew. York too didn't want them to have an awkward moment as he went over to where South was trying to feed a crumpled dollar bill into a snack machine.

"Dammit work!" South growled as the dollar continually got spit out over and over again.

"Here," York said, moving her to the side and pulled out his trusty multi-tool and got to work, "Sometimes you can't let these things get in the way South."

And with a few little twists the door that opened up to allow the machine to be replenished opened up and York snatched a pair of bags of candy.

"Where'd you learn that?" North asked as he filled up his own cup.

"Oh I learned that in fifth grade. The key is not taking them from the front row, that's when suspicion is aroused."

"You're something else York," Wash chuckled as he grabbed a pack of gum from the open machine."

York looked over to Carolina who was leaning against the table and grinned to one another.

"I know I am."

**And done, sorry about the wait folks, I just came up against real time constraints with studying and that kind of stuff. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. Please, please review and tell me what you think and if you have suggestions for what kind of situations you'd like to see these two Freelancers or other Freelancers come up against. I will also be putting in some other pairings but Carolina/York will be my primary focus, so be on the lookout for those. **

**Next Chapter Preview: The next tricky steps to a relationship, and Wash has a crush, and she finds out.**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

After about five hours of movies ranging from the slapstick comedy that was The Colony, the horror thriller that was Unknown, and several other action and comedy movies that even drew laughs and chuckles from Carolina. That was saying quite a lot for those movies, as Carolina was a little preoccupied with York's arm around her for all but a few minutes of those five hours. After kissing for the first time the two of them had been quite hesitant to even say anything to each other, more out of caution than anything else. The two of them each separately felt some sort of deep connection that neither wanted to ruin with a simple selfish mistake like wanting just one more kiss, or by looking at the other in a way that would send the wrong message.

So when Maine suggested that they take a break to grab some dinner the two of them knew that talking about what had happened was unavoidable. North and Maine were the first ones out the door while South went to throw away some trash as Wash grabbed his modest collection of movies and hid them so no one would think about walking out with them. York and Carolina walked out together, unconsciously knowing that the other was dying to know if what had happened was real or just some sort of oddity.

"Uh…Carolina?" York said, walking right up next to her.

"York I…" she responded, rubbing her temples, "I think we need to talk."

"You don't say," the voice of Washington piped up from behind them.

"Wash, go now," Carolina growled.

Wash carefully crept back around the two Freelancers and listened as they watched him go, hoping to hear something, but alas, nothing. Carolina grabbed York and roughly dragged him into an adjacent armory empty of any crew by the hand. York felt that she meant something else by the gesture and about leaned in to kiss Carolina again, but then got a good look at her the expression on her face that said it all.

"So, about that kiss," York said, not trying to sound all cocky and whatnot about it, but not overtly regretting it, which he didn't.

"Was it real York? Did we kiss because we felt like it, or was there something-,"

"Yes it was real!" York blurted, not letting her finish, startling the normally stoic Carolina, "At least, I thought it was. I mean, I don't think I've ever really felt that way about anyone else in all my life."

Carolina raised an eyebrow, "You don't think?"

"Okay that came out wrong, what I mean is-,"

Carolina put a finger on his lips as he stuttered, trying to recover from that minute slip of the tongue, "I _think_, I know what you're getting at York," Carolina said, emphasizing the 'think' in her sentence.

"Really?!" York said, feeling a great ray of hope, "Was it the same feeling for you? You now know I felt like it was real. But you haven't really told me what it was on your end."

"I don't know," she whispered, turning away from York and walked a few paces, her mind turning over what she'd felt at that blissful moment.

"Well, what did you feel?" York said quietly walking up behind her, gently placing his hands on her shoulders.

"Well," she said, "I felt like I was almost in a trance. As wild as that seems," she chuckled.

"Not wild at all," York responded.

"And it felt like my stomach was turning over, in the good way. A nervous way."

"Go on," York whispered as Carolina turned around to face him.

"And, my head, it-it felt like it was on fire…" she said, drawing closer to York.

"I think I know what else you felt," York said, placing his right hand across her cheek, brushing aside a lock of red hair.

"Are you sure about that York?" she replied with an entertained grin.

"Wanna check to be sure?" he chuckled back and let his hand slide back behind her neck and pulled her into another gentle kiss.

This kiss was different than the last one, their lips brushed and moved past and with one another. Carolina unconsciously brought her hands up and around York's neck, tangling her fingers into his hair. It was absolute bliss for the two Freelancers, there were no friends and comrades nearby to spoil the moment. There wasn't any training, or missions, or routine, it was just them. After a few minutes in the clouds the two of them came back down to Earth, their breathing heavy, their lips tingling, and their eyes absolutely alight as they looked at each other from a foot away. All they could see were one another's eyes. York memorized every little speck and detail of Carolina's gorgeous green eyes as she looked deeply into his brown ones.

"I think we know what we felt now," York whispered with a characteristic grin on his face.

"I know so," Carolina said as well, "Come on, we're sort of making ourselves hard to miss."

Carolina sauntered out of the armory, consciously swaying her hips a little as York followed, a massive grin on his face. The two of them opened the door and Carolina carefully peered out and looked around and about gasped when she saw the unmistakable figure of South leaning against the wall to her right.

"Well, well, well, I can appreciate getting kinky in odd places but you Carolina? I'm shocked," she grinned, absolutely not caring what Carolina felt or said.

"South! How did-,"

"Relax Carolina, your secret's safe with me," South replied, sauntering on over towards the mess hall, "You're not the only couple to hook up in empty armories and closets. I see some of the crew and pilots duck into them all the time."

"And I assume you know from experience?" Carolina countered, getting an entertained scoff from South.

"Ha, these boys wish. Those that want to are too afraid of North to even approach me, and those that know North doesn't care are too afraid of me. Not that many of them are my type anyway," South chuckled.

"Well, have you taken the initiative with anyone?" York asked, getting a jab in the ribs from Carolina.

"Nah, not many of these guys peak my interest," South replied nonchalantly.

"Well I happen to know someone that has the hots for you. And I mean he has them bad," York slyly said.

"I probably already know," South said, walking into the mess hall where their team was at their usual table with Wash facing them in his spot and Maine stacking plates in line.

"Well you might be surprised," York said, "He's sitting at our table right now."

South furrowed her eyes brows at him, but then looked to their table. The only people sitting there were North and Washington, who had noticed them walk in. North had a concerned look on his face, knowing what and why South was walking in with York and Carolina. Wash was spreading a packet of ketchup on a hot dog and wasn't looking up.

"You can't mean…" South gaped, her jaw hanging.

"Oh I do mean," York said, walking past her.

"So how did you know Wash had a crush on South?" Carolina asked as they got in line, once out of Washington's earshot.

"Have you seen the way he looks at South behind her and North's back? I'm surprised that she hasn't noticed."

"Is it any different than the way you've looked at me when you think I don't notice?" Carolina responded, making York flush with embarrassment.

"Oh I don't about that. But let's just say that in class Wash spends more time studying what South's wearing than what is being taught."

"Wonder what North's gonna think about it?"

"Think about what?" the unmistakable voice of the tall blonde man in question asked.

"What you think about Wash having a crush on your sister," Maine grumbled, reaching between York and Carolina to grab a fork and knife he'd forgotten.

"What?!" North said, his voice showing more entertainment than actual shock or anger.

"It's true," York said, giving into the fact that he now knew, "Wash's had a serious crush on your sister for a month now. He told me the only thing stopping him from trying to ask her out has been what you thought. You're his friend, he doesn't want to make things really weird because he's going out with your sister."

"He can go ahead and ask her. Although the issue I have isn't whether he breaks her heart, it's if she grinds his into tiny pieces."

"I bet you ten bucks Wash gets ground into tiny pieces," Maine chuckled.

"Hey, what were you two doing to make you late?" North asked, now remembering that the two Freelancers hadn't exactly gone straight to the mess hall.

The two of them looked at one another, and then back to North, "Nothing much."

**And done. Sorry that it's short, just felt like if I continued I would end up having something happen prematurely. I've got a few plans with this, and I'll be taking my time with it. **

**Next Chapter Preview: Meeting the other Freelancers, and going on the first mission.**


End file.
